Extract text from ION files
To convert your ION file to another format, you need Amazon Ion or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Data Serialization Format" file type, you need software like Amazon Ion or a similar tool.
The .ION extension represents two distinct but technical file types that often confuse standard software. Most commonly in modern development, it denotes a data file formatted in Amazon Ion, a rich serialization format developed by Amazon. While Ion text looks similar to JSON, it is a superset containing strict types (like timestamps, decimals, and S-expressions) that standard JSON parsers cannot read. Furthermore, Ion is often stored in a compact binary format to save space in AWS services like DynamoDB, QLDB, and Redshift, rendering it completely unreadable in text editors like VS Code. To make this data usable in web apps, Excel, or standard analytics pipelines, users must convert it to standard JSON or CSV.
Alternatively, an .ION file named descript.ion is a hidden metadata list used by advanced file managers like Total Commander, XnView, and the legacy 4DOS. This simple text file maps filenames to user-written comments and descriptions. Because Windows Explorer ignores these files, your carefully curated metadata often becomes invisible or "orphaned" when you switch computers. Converting descript.ion files to CSV or TXT allows you to archive these file descriptions, migrate them to a database, or view them in standard spreadsheet software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your ION file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted INO, PNG, ML, MRK, ASC and JSON files.
If you want to convert ION file to JSON, SYS, DLL, EXE, DRV, VXD, 386, COM, BAT, CMD, SCR or PIF, you can use Amazon Ion or similar software from the "Data Serialization & Metadata" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MSI, EXE, REG, MST, LNK, CAB, CAT, DRV, INF, SYS, MSU or DLL files to ION, try Amazon Ion or another comparable tool in the "Data Serialization & Metadata" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our ION converter.